Horror Games Megathread

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DrSnakeLaser: Sep 6, 2011

Discendo Vox posted:

The worst silent hill is probably one of the incoherent mobile games

I completely forgot those existed! I remember pixel hunting for a story object I needed and being completely unable to find it in a sea of brown.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 16:11

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# ? May 8, 2024 17:50

Ferrous: Feb 28, 2010

Discendo Vox posted:

The worst silent hill is probably one of the incoherent mobile games, or that weird dungeon crawl they released most recently.

I always liked the cult. They have just barely enough ability to work with whatever the town is to pose a serious threat, and they're evil/misguided such that they do real harm, but at the same time it was also consistently clear that their religion was completely wrong. The cult are also victims at the mercy of whatever the town is. If they were actually moustache-twirling villains (like it became in Homecoming with a secret base and such), I'd like it a lot less.

By contrast, while I thought SH2 was well handled, I'm really sick of the "let's explore the protagonist's secret traumas" element of subsequent games, because when that becomes the focus of the plot it's both obvious and really restrictive. It works as a background part of the game, but not as the core narrative.

SH3's probably my favorite, which is no surprise given the above. But since people have such divided perspectives on what makes SH good, it's easy to see why making a new one would be hard.

I like the cult too, as long as they're just characters and not the actual enemies. Like you say they're the worst in Homecoming where you're getting in gunfights with them.

My favourite is 1, but after that I'm really not sure between 2 and 3. I like 3 as a sequel to 1 but 2 also works well as it's own thing.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 16:24

Meallan: Feb 3, 2017

I also can recommend subnautica. Though to me the big fear only started *after* I got the Seamoth and starting going deeper.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 16:47

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In the interests of full disclosure I have reported everyone who badmouthed silent hill 2. Enjoy your no doubt week long probations.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 16:58

Ferrous: Feb 28, 2010

Silent Hill 2 and P.T. both share the burden of being so good that they inspired a thousand Steam indie horror games. Now 'oh no you actually killed your own family,' and 'infinitely looping spooky hallway' are such clichés.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 17:12

DeathChicken: Jul 9, 2012; Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.

Now that I think of it, Rule of Rose also played the various mental illnesses of the cast fairly straight.

In a way. Like, they seem all overblown and videogamey when it's Jennifer's trip through her own filter. Then she sees stuff for what it is in the epilogue and it's just tragic that a broken guy got led into killing a bunch of kids by a genuine sociopath thinking she was feeling 'love'.

Rule of Rose was so good

# ? Mar 15, 2018 17:25

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Ferrous posted:

Silent Hill 2 and P.T. both share the burden of being so good that they inspired a thousand Steam indie horror games. Now 'oh no you actually killed your own family,' and 'infinitely looping spooky hallway' are such clichés.

Not only that but a lot of indie horror junk on Steam literally reuses the same prefab hallways with a few asset swaps.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 17:27

Accordion Man: Nov 7, 2012; Buglord

Shattered Memories is a great game that was a few years ahead of its time and I will always defend it.

DeathChicken posted:

Now that I think of it, Rule of Rose also played the various mental illnesses of the cast fairly straight.

In a way. Like, they seem all overblown and videogamey when it's Jennifer's trip through her own filter. Then she sees stuff for what it is in the epilogue and it's just tragic that a broken guy got led into killing a bunch of kids by a genuine sociopath thinking she was feeling 'love'.

Rule of Rose was so good

I really don't like the interpretation that Wendy was a sociopath. I prefer that she's just a dumb kid that desperately wanted friends and had serious abandonment issues. They establish that she tended to be bedridden and by herself all the time until she started making up stories to the kids so they would finally start paying attention to her as well meeting Jennifer who she saw as her first and only friend. It's why she's so possessive of Jennifer, Wendy had been alone for most of her life and was utterly paranoid that Jennifer would ditch for her Brown and she'd be alone again. When it comes to Gregory she had no idea how dangerous it was trying to manipulate a broken man like him until it was far too late.

That's one of the great things about Rule of Rose, that there is only one truly heinous antagonist and that's Hoffman the other two are just broken people born out of society's neglect.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 17:34

Yardbomb: Jul 11, 2011; What's with the eh... bretonnian dance, sir?

ShatMem is a neat game marred by the stink of Sam Barlow's writing.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 18:03

Morpheus: Apr 18, 2008; My favourite little monsters

exquisite tea posted:

Not only that but a lot of indie horror junk on Steam literally reuses the same prefab hallways with a few asset swaps.

It's funny watching a youtuber (typically John Wolfe does this) when they immediately recognize an asset pack or room configuration in a game from another game.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 18:09

Skyscraper: Oct 1, 2004; Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

Morpheus posted:

It's funny watching a youtuber (typically John Wolfe does this) when they immediately recognize an asset pack or room configuration in a game from another game.

I loved his video all about that one particular stock asset house.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 18:13

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

DeathChicken posted:

Now that I think of it, Rule of Rose also played the various mental illnesses of the cast fairly straight.

In a way. Like, they seem all overblown and videogamey when it's Jennifer's trip through her own filter. Then she sees stuff for what it is in the epilogue and it's just tragic that a broken guy got led into killing a bunch of kids by a genuine sociopath thinking she was feeling 'love'.

Rule of Rose was so good

Rule of Rose is legitimately worth suffering through the gameplay for, because the plot is actually fantastic.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 18:19

Instruction Manuel: May 15, 2007; Yes, it is what it looks like!

Vakal posted:

I think my biggest peeve about the Silent Hill movies was their use of the soundtracks from the games, especially the poaching of SH2 tracks for the first movie.

It just felt so unearned.

Didn't like the outro the first movie? I thought it was pretty rad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjaGx8RzVxc

# ? Mar 15, 2018 18:40

Len: Jan 21, 2008; Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!

You guys are missing one of the most stand out parts of the first movie, Sean Bean survives.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 18:52

Improbable Lobster: Jan 6, 2012; What is the Matrix 🌐? We just don't know 😎.; Buglord

al-azad posted:

Completely separate of the license I think Silent Hill is a solid C film, particularly because it relies heavily on theatrical set design and latex costumes. The creatures are beautiful, all of it costumes (with some CG editing for Jacob's Ladder jerkiness of course), and the fact you have people basically blinded from rubber suits and walking on stilts everyone moves just like the monsters from the game. It's what The Thing remake should've looked like. Honestly the better film is the Making of the Movie because it is a labor of love.

But 2006 also saw Slither, the much better practical effects driven horror film that was criminally ignored whereas Silent Hill almost doubled its budget.

It's a little unfair to compare a Cronenberg film to a mediocre-at-best video game movie. Or at least it would be if not for how they compared at the box office. Slither is definitely, obviously the better film by a huge margin.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 18:55

Improbable Lobster: Jan 6, 2012; What is the Matrix 🌐? We just don't know 😎.; Buglord

Yardbomb posted:

ShatMem is a neat game marred by the stink of Sam Barlow's writing.

I agree with this.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 18:59

al-azad: May 28, 2009

The whole looping hallway thing is frustrating because there are so many interesting ways you can spin it other than "this is just a weird horror thing." Like it's time to bring back HAL/Demon Seed killer AI houses, rebuilding rooms and loving with your head dynamically.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 19:11

DeathChicken: Jul 9, 2012; Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.

Accordion Man posted:

That's one of the great things about Rule of Rose, that there is only one truly heinous antagonist and that's Hoffman the other two are just broken people born out of society's neglect.

The bit where it becomes apparent that Diana was most likely being molested was one of the biggest kick-you-in-the-dick moments a videogame could spring. You are led around the entire game with this one character being a colossal asshat, then one scene later and it's like, this was just a kid coping with the worst poo poo in the worst way.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 19:24

WaltherFeng: May 15, 2013; 50 thousand people used to live here. Now, it's the Mushroom Kingdom.

Can somebody tell me what are key differences between Evil Within and its sequel?

Personally, I loved the original. It had great atmosphere like its predecessor RE4 and the game forced you to play smart with your resources. Outdated controls I didnt mind because I've played video games before this one.

I've heard the sequel isnt as good and the opposite so I'm unsure if the game has kept the charm of the original.

# ? Mar 23, 2018 17:02

Instruction Manuel: May 15, 2007; Yes, it is what it looks like!

WaltherFeng posted:

Can somebody tell me what are key differences between Evil Within and its sequel?

Personally, I loved the original. It had great atmosphere like its predecessor RE4 and the game forced you to play smart with your resources. Outdated controls I didnt mind because I've played video games before this one.

I've heard the sequel isnt as good and the opposite so I'm unsure if the game has kept the charm of the original.

Well the sequel is definitely more action focused. Think of it of the jump from Resident Evil 3 to Resident Evil 4. I've always designated RE's 4-6 Survival Action compared to RE's 1-3's Survival Horror. There's more dealing with enemies directly rather than fighting only when it's necessary. There's less of a sense of "What the Hell is going on" mostly because Seb has been through the made up world already. I think it plays way better than the first. This is based on the second highest difficulty. I haven't played through on the unlockable highest difficulty yet. Here's a quick movie comparison: Evil Within 2 is Aliens while Evil Within is Alien. I'm sure someone can give a way better explanation.

# ? Mar 23, 2018 17:18

mysterious frankie: Jan 11, 2009; This displeases Dev- ..van. Shut up.

WaltherFeng posted:

Can somebody tell me what are key differences between Evil Within and its sequel?

Personally, I loved the original. It had great atmosphere like its predecessor RE4 and the game forced you to play smart with your resources. Outdated controls I didnt mind because I've played video games before this one.

I've heard the sequel isnt as good and the opposite so I'm unsure if the game has kept the charm of the original.

The sequel is more consistent. Part one is a hodge podge of themes and game design. How much you like it will depend on how charming you find jank. Part two is exactly what it says on the label (third person exploration horror) and never really pivots and becomes something else.

Imagine both games are mashed potatoes. Part two are boiled, seasoned and whipped into even, fluffy mashed potatoeness. Part one was mashed by hand, then the masher decided they wanted to make loaded mash potatoes, so they added bacon bits, cheese and chives, then they were like "hey, people like steak with loaded potatoes" so they put some steakums in there. Then they went "oh dang, nothing quite satisfies after a steak and potato meal like a nice piece of cake!" so they also crumble some black forest on there too. It's... bold.

# ? Mar 23, 2018 17:26

Mindblast: Jun 28, 2006; Moving at the speed of death.

There's also a tonal difference. The sequel has less ham than the first. Some people think that makes things worse, but I like both in their own ways.

# ? Mar 23, 2018 17:49

smuh: Feb 21, 2011

WaltherFeng posted:

Can somebody tell me what are key differences between Evil Within and its sequel?

Personally, I loved the original. It had great atmosphere like its predecessor RE4 and the game forced you to play smart with your resources. Outdated controls I didnt mind because I've played video games before this one.

I've heard the sequel isnt as good and the opposite so I'm unsure if the game has kept the charm of the original.

TEW1 is like a ball of clay with a bunch of weird shaped clumps thrown on top of it, but you can appreciate it due to its weirdness until you realize it's just kind of a mess and the clumps are just there to distract you from a dumb ball of clay
TEW2 is a professionally sculpted statue that you might think is boring and traditional at first but at least it is a coherent whole where everything fits into place and you keep finding new neat details, unless you think you've seen way too many statues in your lifetime already

Ignoring stupid metaphors though I thought the first game was a really cool experience where nothing felt coherent and that in itself kind of made it cool and interesting for one playthrough with the dream logic and odd design choices and whatnot, but I also did not enjoy a second playthrough at all because without the element of surprise it's just kind of a bad game in itself. The second one I personally think is one of the best action-stealth-horror games ever with it being really fun to play and the writing being deliberately cheesy as hell. It does lose some of the nightmarish feel of the original in the process however. So it really is just kind of about what you like about games in general.

# ? Mar 23, 2018 18:08

al-azad: May 28, 2009

The first game is the Cabin in the Woods of survival horror. It's just an excuse to mash as many genre tropes as possible. When it works it's fantastic, when it doesn't work it's miserable. I loved about 70% of the game but honestly I played it last year for the first time and haven't forgotten a beat. I'm waiting to play the sequel because I want no distractions.

# ? Mar 23, 2018 19:28

Poulpe: Nov 11, 2006; Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

al-azad posted:

The first game is the Cabin in the Woods of survival horror. It's just an excuse to mash as many genre tropes as possible. When it works it's fantastic, when it doesn't work it's miserable. I loved about 70% of the game but honestly I played it last year for the first time and haven't forgotten a beat. I'm waiting to play the sequel because I want no distractions.

Ohhh. Oh gently caress.
Cabin in the Woods needs to become a dead by daylight game.
Betrayal at the House on the Hill style. 6 players, race around collecting supplies and powerups, one of them becomes the monster du jour, and every game would have like 3 of 50 randomly selected monsters to become. That would be so boss.

# ? Mar 23, 2018 21:16

al-azad: May 28, 2009

Poulpe posted:

Ohhh. Oh gently caress.
Cabin in the Woods needs to become a dead by daylight game.
Betrayal at the House on the Hill style. 6 players, race around collecting supplies and powerups, one of them becomes the monster du jour, and every game would have like 3 of 50 randomly selected monsters to become. That would be so boss.

That's basically what Betrayal is except the monster is sprung on you randomly instead of reading the Latin.

# ? Mar 23, 2018 21:32

Danaru: Jun 5, 2012; 何 ??

Betrayal is a super fun game I got to play exactly twice using Tabletop Simulator. One of them I became a tentacled behemoth and basically camped the elevators like an rear end in a top hat (it was my first game :saddowns:

), in the second game I became a mad bomber, and one of the other players who was a priest killed his friend, became super buff as a result, then came downstairs and punched my head off.

It SOUNDS like I'm misremembering that second round, but I'm 95% sure that's exactly what happened.

# ? Mar 23, 2018 21:40

Len: Jan 21, 2008; Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!

Danaru posted:

Betrayal is a super fun game I got to play exactly twice using Tabletop Simulator. One of them I became a tentacled behemoth and basically camped the elevators like an rear end in a top hat (it was my first game ), in the second game I became a mad bomber, and one of the other players who was a priest killed his friend, became super buff as a result, then came downstairs and punched my head off.

It SOUNDS like I'm misremembering that second round, but I'm 95% sure that's exactly what happened.

One game had us in the house and it got picked up by a giant bird and we had to get a parachute and escape. As soon as it became every man for himself I just kept running in a straight line and threatening to shoot anyone that got near me with the gun I'd found.

That was a fun game and it's weird that it's gotten semi-popular recently after being out for like ten years.

# ? Mar 23, 2018 22:23

friendly 2 da void: Mar 23, 2018

Surprised no one has posted the trailer to Outer Wilds yet. It will easily be the scariest game of the year for me, Subnautica has nothing on the creepy poo poo that lies in the void of space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS2KB_cFrTo

People who played the janky little demo three years ago will know what I'm talking about.

# ? Mar 24, 2018 01:32

Danaru: Jun 5, 2012; 何 ??

friendly 2 da void posted:

Surprised no one has posted the trailer to Outer Wilds yet. It will easily be the scariest game of the year for me, Subnautica has nothing on the creepy poo poo that lies in the void of space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS2KB_cFrTo

People who played the janky little demo three years ago will know what I'm talking about.

I still cringe thinking about the brambles :ohdear:

# ? Mar 24, 2018 01:38

Instruction Manuel: May 15, 2007; Yes, it is what it looks like!

friendly 2 da void posted:

Surprised no one has posted the trailer to Outer Wilds yet. It will easily be the scariest game of the year for me, Subnautica has nothing on the creepy poo poo that lies in the void of space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS2KB_cFrTo

People who played the janky little demo three years ago will know what I'm talking about.

this is the first I've seen of it. That trailer has me a little hyped but I'm still cautious after being burned by Dead Island's infamous teaser.

# ? Mar 24, 2018 02:22

Danaru: Jun 5, 2012; 何 ??

Wamdoodle posted:

this is the first I've seen of it. That trailer has me a little hyped but I'm still cautious after being burned by Dead Island's infamous teaser.

Honestly if it's still got most of the same content as the demo, the trailer leaves a lot of stuff out, which is smart since it's a game about discovering stuff :v:

Subnautica is an apt comparison since a lot of early stuff you discover is adorable and pleasant.

And then.

# ? Mar 24, 2018 02:30

Dreadwroth: Dec 12, 2009; by R. Guyovich

Man I played the demo, looks like they pit a lot of work into Outer Wilds, nice.

# ? Mar 24, 2018 04:55

Bogart: Apr 12, 2010; by VideoGames

Game is giving me serious Affordable Space Adventures vibes, which is secretly the best WiiU game. I wanna eat marshmallows with a not-Big Daddy.

# ? Mar 24, 2018 06:00

Gobblecoque: Sep 6, 2011

friendly 2 da void posted:

Surprised no one has posted the trailer to Outer Wilds yet. It will easily be the scariest game of the year for me, Subnautica has nothing on the creepy poo poo that lies in the void of space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS2KB_cFrTo

People who played the janky little demo three years ago will know what I'm talking about.

Woah, I didn't know they were doing more with Outer Wilds. I just thought that demo was just a one-off thing. This is excellent news because exploring that little solar system was one of the coolest bits of open-ended exploration I've ever seen in a game.

# ? Mar 24, 2018 08:43

Dreadwroth: Dec 12, 2009; by R. Guyovich

I wouldn't call the Outer Wilds a horror game, maybe slightly spooky space adventure.

# ? Mar 24, 2018 09:44

Instruction Manuel: May 15, 2007; Yes, it is what it looks like!

Dreadwroth posted:

I wouldn't call the Outer Wilds a horror game, maybe slightly spooky space adventure.

Regardless, I'm glad it was called to my attention :tipshat:

# ? Mar 24, 2018 09:49

friendly 2 da void: Mar 23, 2018

Dreadwroth posted:

I wouldn't call the Outer Wilds a horror game, maybe slightly spooky space adventure.

It's definitely not a horror game, no more than Subnautica. But for me (and I know I'm not alone!) they are the scariest types of games I can possibly play so I feel like they gotta fit in this thread somewhere. I get a "cosmic horror" feeling from the loneliness and starkness of the environments.

Wamdoodle posted:

this is the first I've seen of it. That trailer has me a little hyped but I'm still cautious after being burned by Dead Island's infamous teaser.

I've got hope because the old demo was a stellar proof of concept. Also, it's being distributed by the incredible Annapurna who Don't Publish Bad Movies and after they published Edith Finch I'm pretty sure they also Don't Publish Bad Games.

# ? Mar 26, 2018 01:21

Danaru: Jun 5, 2012; 何 ??

I wish the Outer Wilds folks would release a full version of the theme song. It's comfy as hell :unsmith:

Apparently there's an overhauled version of SCP Containment Breach that includes a lot of interesting and creative SCPs I never heard about. I also found out that pretty much everyone else also nicknames SCP-106 "Radical Larry" which makes me really happy.

# ? Mar 26, 2018 01:26

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# ? May 8, 2024 17:50

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Radical Larry is my anarchist cousin

# ? Mar 26, 2018 14:13

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